From the Experts, Your Event Career
5 Secrets for Boosting Your Event Planner Salary in 2020
Amira Harris is the owner and destination wedding specialist of Aisle Travel™ based in Calgary, Alberta Canada. Aisle Travel™ provides Canadian couples with full group travel services, destination wedding planning, and customized wedding group experiences. In addition to running her own business, Amira is also one of QC’s leading tutors for the Destination Wedding Planning course.
If you’re new to the professional planning industry, or even a seasoned expert, you’ll always need to find new ways to boost your event planner salary and elevate your business. This is especially true during a time like now, when things feel so uncertain and are changing so rapidly. Today, I will share 5 awesome ideas to get you moving into the right direction!
1. Offer Virtual Services
A great way to supplement your event planner salary is to offer virtual services. This could be something as easy as:
- Offering vendor/supplier recommendations
- Conducting online consultations and appointments
- Teaching virtual classes about the event and wedding planning industry
- Providing online services in place of your traditionally in-person services
- And so much more!
These services can be priced a la carte, or even as a package (based on the number of attendees). The great thing is that you can create set formats for your clients, based on the level of help they require from you!
Virtual services are always something great to offer. They keep you busy in-between your larger planning clients/projects, since they often have much shorter turn-around times needed in order to complete the work. It’s also a great way to always have a consistent flow of funds coming in!
2. Earn a Professional Certification
With the ever-changing event world, we always need to stay current for our clients. This means taking courses, participating in webinars, and/or attending seminars. I can guarantee you that this level of expert training will help you stand out from the competition and increase your event planner salary!
Personally, I view continued education as a high priority for any professional planner. It’s not just because I believe that education is an investment (which it really is). It’s also just as much because I love to learn new things! Most importantly, by furthering my training, I can offer even more value to my clients.
Taking wedding and event planner courses is always something I make time to do. Having a professional education – especially one that’s specialized – will strengthen your skill-set as a planner, and make YOU all the more confident in what you do. One great avenue I recommend is the new Virtual Events Training offered by QC Event School! This exciting course will allow you to train at your own pace and time, while preparing you to adapt your event planner business to the digital age!
3. Focus on Your Marketing and Advertising Strategies
In my downtime, which I admittedly don’t get a lot of, I always work on improving my business. I focus on everything from a marketing budget for the following year, to website updates, and everything in-between.
Especially during this global pandemic, use your downtime to strengthen your online marketing efforts. This way, when things are back to normal, you’ll be ready for clients! Putting time and effort into your marketing and advertising strategies will help ensure that you reach your ideal client.
Who knows – you might even reach a larger, untapped market that previously wasn’t possible. Plus, you can expand your online following and become an even greater subject-matter expert in your field!
4. Develop a Client Program
After any event, my business always sends a survey to our clients. This survey provides me with a lot of data and insight into how we’re doing. From this valuable feedback, we can also learn how to do even better. Because of this survey, I got the idea to put together a client referral program, based on feedback we received.
It took time to implement this new program. When we did launch it, we used our monthly newsletter (another great way to keep in contact) to notify clients. Since then, we’ve received a fair number of referrals from past clients! Not only is it beneficial for me financially; it also helps me stay relevant to my past clients.
A client referral program is great, because it takes little effort on your part to actively market and sell – and it’s extremely effective!
5. Start Writing for Others
If writing is something you enjoy, this can be an easy and enjoyable way to boost your event planner salary! Offer your expertise by writing blog articles for event and/or wedding planning publications. Not only does this get your creative juices flowing; it can also increase your business’s SEO ranking online!
Often, by becoming a guest writer, your blog posts will link back to you and your business. This is another great form of free advertising!
These are only a small portion of ways to boost your event planner salary in 2020.With so many events being postponed or cancelled, we need to get creative when it comes to supplementing our event planner salary. By doing so, it keeps us motivated and inspired, as well as employed.
During a global pandemic, it’s easy to become discouraged and not feel very motivated. I understand that – I mean, we all have our days! In order to pull yourself out of this funk, we really need to keep things moving and never lose site of our long-term goals. It’s not often that we have this kind of downtime. We should see it as a positive!
After all, now’s the perfect opportunity to maximize this time to your advantage. Once things start to pick back up again, the industry will be remarkably busy and full-steam ahead. Stay safe and healthy. Happy planning!
